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Colorado Springs now has its own Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.

The ICE office, which opened Monday, is the agency’s ninth in Colorado.

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, has been pushing for the new office for two years. He says it’s needed because Colorado Springs is the second largest city in ICE’s Denver-area jurisdiction. He also says he has heard from law enforcement about an increase in illegal immigration in the city.

We don’t usually do much commentary, instead letting people’s actions speak for themselves, but there are some news stories that we absolutely cannot let go reported in the way the media would have it. This is one such story. The following piece is not as complete and thought-out as we want; it’s a piece we’ve worked on for about a week since the news hit the press, but we’d like to work on it more. Look for a better version in the next issue of ’til it breaks.

Last week the Denver Police Department made a mass arrest of 34 black youth and it seems like nobody has blinked an eye.

The 34 suspects were rounded up because, according to the cops, they are suspects in a series of downtown muggings.

Last we heard, 30 of those individuals have been charged with things like assault and robbery–many of them felony charges. The police did not make it clear how they identified and rounded up the suspects, but “most of [them] told police they were associated with either the Rollin’ 60s Crips gang or the Black Gangster Disciples gang.” The police keep dossiers on gang members; apparently they used their lists to round up individuals, throw them in jail, and begin interrogations.

All this ought to raise some kind of resistance from radicals who are also tracked by the police.

Anarchists, especially, should take notice when this shit goes down, cause we’re in gangs ourselves. It’s true. All it takes is a crew of folks who have each others’ backs to be a gang. Our forms of social organization are atypical, and they are our greatest strength.

Even if you don’t think you’re a gangster, the cops already do. The police in Denver have been using their Gang Units to track anarchists for years. To them, we’re gangs.

The Politics of Displacement and Community Self-Determination

from AFSC:

Join us Monday, Sept. 28th at 6pm for a multimedia presentation on neoliberalism, militarism and popular resistance in Oaxaca, Mexico and beyond.

Community rights defense organizer Simón Sedillo will be bringing a new multimedia presentation. Through lectures, workshops, and short films from Oaxaca, Mexico Sedillo helps draw real connections between the struggles of indigenous communities, immigrant communities, and communities of color in the US and Mexico.

Editors’ note: We are finding it extremely difficult to find detailed information from a radical perspective about the incidents of the 1970’s in Denver around the Chicano movement— especially the 1973 shootout and bombing, the ‘suspicious’ murders of Chicano militants, and the 1975 plot to bomb Denver police stations (in which militants were set up by an informant). If you have any good sources, please contact us.

DENVER, March 17, 1973 — Given the persistent pattern of police violence and terror against Denver’s Chicanos, an arrest of a man for jaywalking in front of Crusade for Justice headquarters touched off a confrontation between the Chicano organization and Denver police officers.

A gun battle followed during which Denver police reported that they were fired on by snipers.

One person was killed and 17 people were injured, including a dozen police officers.

Corky Gonzales of the Crusade alleged that the police threw grenades in an assault on Crusade headquarters, but the police accused the Crusade of storing explosives inside the apartment building.

The bombing, along with a string of murders of key Chicano activists under suspicious circumstances, were among the incidents by which the government repressed the militant Chicano movement in Colorado in the 1970’s.

Riots continue for two days

They suffered years of segregation in Denver Public Schools, and endured racist remarks and what seemed a never-ending inequality for educational opportunity.

Then, on March 19, 1969, a group of 150 Latino students said enough was enough and walked out of their classrooms at West High School.

The students and adult civil-rights leaders who joined them on the steps of the school were met by helmeted police officers, a barrage of tear gas and handcuffs.

The protesters said they were tired of a specific teacher who they said made a habit of weaving racist remarks into his social studies lectures.

Although the group that walked out represented only a tenth of the Chicano student body at West, and 6 percent of the school’s total population, their message could not to be quieted.

Once outside, adults joined student protesters.

When students began to march off school grounds and across the street to Sunken Garden Park, 15 Denver police officers began hitting people with billy clubs and shoving others to the ground.

Officers later said they were acting in self-defense against punches thrown by protesters.

After the dust and tear gas settled, 25 people — including 12 juveniles — were detained. More than a half-dozen people were injured, including one officer.

The confrontation between protesters and police sparked a series of neighborhood protests in the days that followed. Many included clashes with police.

Rocks and glass bottles were thrown and vehicle windows were smashed. More people were arrested and more injuries — of both police and protesters — were reported. After a couple of restless days, protests subsided. Of the more than a dozen protesters who were arrested, only one was convicted.

The confrontation gave rise to a list of student demands. They sought diversity among district faculty and in curriculum; additional cultural training for teachers; outright dismissal of racist teachers; and bilingual study options within the school system.